Pillars of golden light suddenly burst out from the sea, illuminating the dark night sky with dazzling light, and the British officers and men were engrossed in looking away, and sure enough, they found a faint shadow of a ship on the distant sea. Although the outline of the target is still unrecognizable, even if it is impossible to distinguish between the capital ship and the destroyer, their identity can be completely determined that it is the German fleet that the British naval officers and sailors are planning to intercept this time!

Without the Hood taking command, the power of the British destroyer group immediately went into overload, and the ships sped towards their targets at a top speed of more than 35 knots. The bow of the ship rushed out like a wave like the Milky Way pouring out, so much so that even the command bridge was immersed in the icy water. Every British sailor on these ships knew that their mission tonight was to move forward without being crushed. Behind the destroyers, the shelling fleet, which was also galloping at high speed, was repeatedly correcting its firing parameters according to their illumination, and two battle cruisers and six heavy cruisers were like sharp daggers, leading the Hood to pierce their targets.

"It's not good, it's not good!" Looking at the group of British ships that were rushing towards him in the distance, Kars oozed a large drop of sweat from his forehead, and yelled in his heart. In an instant, Kars knew that he was in an extremely dangerous situation. The enemy was coming from the southwest, and the position was almost just right, and although he had just ordered 16 compass points (180 degrees) on the left side of the fleet, he would still be caught up and bitten by the opponent on the way to the north. If it was in the wide ocean, the German fleet could have broken away to the east, but now 40 nautical miles to the east is Icelandic land, and if you flee there, you will only be surrounded by the British!

Faced with the sudden murder in front of him, Kars had no time to think about how the British did it. He immediately ordered two heavy cruisers, the Königsberg and the Karlsruhe, and all the remaining eight destroyers, to the northwest side of the capital ship to shield them, and to prevent the enemy destroyers from breaking through at all costs.

Kars's thinking is very clear, the most important thing at this time is that the 2 super battleships must not lose speed, otherwise no matter how thick the armor is, they will be beaten to death by the opponent's shell torpedo wheels. And the only way to effectively slow down the Bismarck-class is a torpedo. The ship's defense against shells was so high that it was fearless even in close quarters, and only the powerful underwater blasting of torpedoes could slow down the ship through hundreds or thousands of tons of water.

When the German battleship had completed its turn, the northwest direction of its front left side was the ideal lightning position for the British destroyers. Therefore, the German light ship group must be firmly nailed to this position, and even if it is broken and the ship sinks, it cannot take a step back. And no one would consider releasing smoke to hide themselves at this time, because this would undoubtedly cover the lightning charge of the British destroyers, so that they would not be stopped by the rapid-fire barrage formed by the medium-caliber secondary guns at all!

"It's good that I left the aircraft carrier behind half an hour ago, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable......" Kars clung to the bridge wall tilted by the sharp turn of the battleship, feeling a little more happy in his heart. Unlike the other ships in the fleet, Jonas Jr.'s aircraft carrier is the other extreme, with no 1 ton of weight dedicated to shell protection, and it would be fatal if it was ridden in the face by an opponent. By now, Bomay should have been alerted to run away, and at the speed of the Zeppelin-class, it would be almost impossible for the British destroyers to catch up.

"General, the British should have intended to slow us down with a wave of torpedoes. At the worst of all, it will force us to turn the rudder to the northwest to evade, and quickly engage them in a short encounter. Lindemann had already calmed down from the initial panic, and combined with the movements of the enemy ships reported by the radar room, he quickly came to a judgment similar to that of Kars. Lindeman's eyes brightened in the dim light of the Command Tower, "But we can use this weapon too." It depends on whether our sailors are astute, or whether the British all have eyes that are brighter than searchlights! ”

Kars's heart was suddenly shocked, and his eyes immediately lit up: "You are right. The Z-type destroyers not only had artillery and armor, but also had 2 heavy torpedoes in 5 packs. Tonight is the perfect time for them to come in handy. ”

"What about the German aircraft carriers, haven't you found the German aircraft carriers yet?" Commander of the Hood, Tari, Tovey could not hide his anxiety and shouted questions to his subordinates. An officer hurriedly contacted the mast fire console with a nervous expression, and after a few moments received a negative answer from the intercom microphone. In the observation of the main rangefinder magnified dozens of times, the German fleet in the distance, without exception, had a pronounced upper bridge, which could be determined not to be a flat-topped ship. And according to the detection of the radar room, there are no extra echo signals around, and the large target is only 2 battleships in the opponent's queue!

Tovey gritted his back molars and combed through the situation in a very short time. It is certain that the German fleet must have had aircraft carriers, as evidenced by the two reports from the submarines during the day. And the reason why the target cannot be found now is likely that the commander of the opposing side has become vigilant due to various previous encounters and left the aircraft carrier behind the shelling fleet. Tovey quickly concluded that the German aircraft carriers would not act alone, especially tonight, when they were still in the strait, and would not break away from the protection of the capital warship.

"Order the Canberra and the Berwick to break away from the formation with 2 destroyers and continue the search in 11 directions!" Tovey's eyes lit up as he ordered loudly. The German aircraft carrier must not have gone far at this moment, and there is still hope that it will catch up. Cole's face turned pale when he heard this, and he couldn't help but pound in his heart.

At present, the British fleet's artillery force is really shabby, in addition to the two old battle cruisers, there are only six treaty-type heavy cruisers left, the Suffolk has been sunk by the German ships more than ten minutes ago, and the Australia is still nearly 20 nautical miles away from the battlefield due to the location of the previous search, and it is impossible to rush to reinforcements in time. If you draw out 2 more heavy cruisers to the north to look for the enemy now, the auxiliary wings of the battle patrol will only have 4 heavy cruisers, and the enemy you have to face is a lineup of 2 Bismarck-class and 1 Deutscher-class, and the pressure is almost suffocating!

But Cole also understood that this was an action that the commander had to take. Not to mention that the German aircraft carriers are a thorn in the back for the whole of Britain, just from the current point of view, if the enemy aircraft carriers cannot be severely damaged in the early hours of this morning, then when the dawn comes, they will be greeted by an overwhelming group of attack planes. It is impossible for our side to pin their hopes on the weather in a few hours, and once the German carrier-based aircraft successfully attack, it will be a disastrous end for the British fleet!

Once he had made his arrangements, Tovey turned his attention to the massive night battle that was about to break out. After all, it is clearly imperative to defeat an opponent who is close at hand, rather than pursuing a German aircraft carrier that has not yet been seen. By asking the radar room, Tovey quickly understood the intentions of the German fleet: the enemy was indeed trying to block the most effective position for his torpedo attack in order to buy time for their capital ships to evacuate.

"Send a message to the HMS Belfast ordering them to clear the German frigate group." Tovey said in a deep voice.

The waves were rolling, the machinery was roaring, and in the thick of the night, the two fleets gradually approached in the light of the searchlights. The main warships of both sides tacitly did not immediately turn on the searchlights to avoid becoming the enemy's target when they could not guarantee the hit rate, but the light ships in front of them were swept by pillars of light, and more than 200 guns pointed at the opponent with malicious intent. Suddenly, orange and red waves bloomed beautifully in the golden light, and the roar of artillery swept through the sea and sky like thunder—and the battle between the forward troops officially broke out.

Thanks to Kars's order to protect the main force, the German light battleships soon approached the British lightning strike group to less than 7 kilometers in their west-northerly voyage. If it was daylight, the two K-class heavy cruisers would have taken advantage of the effective range of the 210 mm guns to carry out a head-on attack on the four British light cruisers from a distance of 15 kilometers, but at this moment, even if the searchlight illuminates the outline of the enemy ship, it is still difficult to accurately grasp the fire control observation of the target.

"The Germans' range advantage was finally lost. Let them understand what a stormy barrage is! One of the guns commander of the cruiser Belfast shouted loudly, causing more than 20 sailors in the turret to shout in response. As the last remnant of the Second London Naval Agreement in 1936, HMS Belfast was the culmination of the British 10,000-ton light cruiser: its 10,500-ton hull was equipped with 12 152mm L50 main guns and 12 102mm L45 high-level dual-purpose guns.

Because the design goal is to be a guard brother, the Belfast-class firepower configuration of large ship-mounted small guns makes it very disadvantageous in the normal face of German cruisers alone, but as long as the distance is close to less than 10 kilometers, the rate of fire advantage of the Belfast-class 152 mm main gun can be vividly displayed. With the blessing of the turret mechanism, the ship's main gun can obtain a sustained rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute, at this time the British light cruiser will have an absolute advantage in firepower, and the large number of shells projected is enough to make any heavy cruiser unable to parry!

At this time, behind the Belfast, there were three 10,000-ton light cruisers, also equipped with 12 152mm guns, closely following. Tovey's purpose in bringing them into battle was to allow them to give full play to their projection advantage in night battles, crushing a lightning channel in the array of German armored destroyers.

As the light cruisers opened fire one after another, the German ships soon became a rain of bullets, and fiery and sharp explosive shrapnel flew through the deck like lightning. The two K-class heavy cruisers fought back, and the 210mm armor-piercing shells were enough to penetrate any position of the British light cruisers. However, in the face of the huge difference in projection density, the German ships still quickly fell to the downwind, and the shells flew one after another, bringing violent explosions and large areas of fire damage. (https:)

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